“ ‘For I tell you, not one of those people who were invited will enjoy my banquet.’ ” Luke 14:24
This is going to sound presumptuous, but even though I have no official training in space exploration, I am confident that I could successfully orchestrate a mission to Mars. You see, I have planned a wedding.
My late wife and I had been to dozens of these nuptial affairs, so when our daughter announced her engagement, I was confident we could pull it off, on budget—no sweat.
One of the more enlightening things we learned was a result of our assembling guest lists and mailing invitations. Some people were immediately responsive to the RSVP printed on the engraved solicitations, and some completely ignored it.1 The wedding happened decades ago, and we still haven’t heard if some of these folks are coming.
We can’t say we weren’t warned. Experts—wedding planners who learn everything they know about price structure from trial lawyers—told us to expect a “significant” number of people who would never respond—never. They were right. We got an invoice for that helpful advice.
How incredible it is that people don’t respond to an invitation to a party, complete with plenty of fun and free food. But do you know what? This has been going on for a long time.
Jesus was sitting at the dinner table of a prominent religious leader. He and those around him were discussing this issue: Why do some people ignore RSVPs?
I can just imagine the people sitting there, intrigued with Jesus’s interest in discussing matters of dinner-party etiquette. “Boy,” they must have said to one another, “this guy knows something about everything.”
And now, a couple of millennia later, I’m wondering when it occurred to these dinner guests that Jesus wasn’t talking about RSVPs and manners; He was talking about His kingdom. In the story, when the man sent his servant to “tell those who were invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready’” (v. 17). He was not talking about people ignoring invitations to dinner soirees. He was talking about our response to His invitation to feast at the table of His boundless grace.
When the formal invitees decided they had better things to do, the party host told his servants to look for people who were hungry and homeless, people for whom this feast represented survival, not just another obligation on their social calendar.
Here’s the message for us: this feast is worth canceling everything so we can attend. No other distraction should get in the way of our experience at God’s table. You and I have the chance to thank Him for inviting us, not because we look good on His invitation list but because without this meal, you and I would starve.
The invitation has arrived, and there’s an RSVP printed in the corner. The table is set. There’s a place card with your name on it. Don’t miss this celebration.
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